[D'sP] Faux Double Dash - Chapter 453

Doyle spent a good bit of time putting the cyclone goats through their paces. This mostly involved spawning a few of them on the 19th floor and telling them to mess with the other monsters.

The first cyclone goat on the floor had a good showing. Of course, there weren’t any clouds to walk on, so a third of its skills were offline, but Airdash worked just fine. So, in service of following orders, it dashes straight up in the air.

From higher up, the goat is able to spot a nearby razor fox. Which was where Doyle thought the excitement would end until the goat could make its way over to said fox. Then the goat did an honest to goodness double jump.

The cyclone goats twisted in midair and their back legs thrust out, performing a second Airdash right at the fox. Then to stack even more on top of that, the goat channeled a Spiral Blast through their horns. Yeah, the razor fox barely had a chance to respond before it was dead.

Doyle turns to Ally, ‘For some reason, I don’t think Airdash is meant to actually double jump. Or rather, I guess it would be more proper to call it a triple jump? Like, the goat used the first jump while on the ground, but I assume the goat can use the jump midair. I, however, also assume it can only do so one or else the skill is backdooring flight.’

Ally frowns for a second, ‘Hmm. Airdash should only be usable once in a jump. Most skills like that have the limit, or rather, if they don’t have the limit it is called out in the skill name. So Double Airdash or Infinite Airdash.

‘Though this isn’t to limit false flight. Just look at the Cloud Walker skill the cyclone goat also has. It is simply a part of the skill. Like I said, if it could do more, the skill name would say so.’

Doyle, ‘Then what happened?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Eh, the cyclone goat seems to innately know how to abuse the skill. Remember, the limit to use is you can only dash once in the air. So the cyclone goat simply dashed on the ground and then on the air, thus technically only dashing once while in the air.

‘There is likely some sort of physical limit on how often the goat can use the skill? That tends to be the case and what stops warriors from dashing around the battlefield like crazy.’

Doyle nods, ‘Okay, I can see that. Though it feels like video game logic. “Why, of course I can make another jump, I technically touched the ground!” Though speaking of which, couldn’t this be used to dash up a sheer cliff? Like, you dash upwards at a diagonal away from the wall, you dash back to the wall, and repeat.’

Ally, ‘Once again, there the limit will be physical. There is nothing to stop that. Though there is also nothing to stop someone with a regular ground-based dash from also dashing up the cliff. Well, okay, they’d need to be able to get a good footing for each dash, while the air dash simply needs to push away from the cliff.’

Doyle, ‘This does bring up another question. How early does true flight tend to come into play? Err, and by that I mean for those who don’t already naturally have it. Birds are sort of born with it, after all.’

Ally shrugs, ‘No set point. Magic items obviously let anyone who can afford the price tag zip around. Personally powered flight, on the other hand, tends to be picked up somewhere late in the climb to 1,000 by nearly everyone. Though if someone actively wants to fly, they can get it quite early. The real question being how long they can sustain the flight.’

With such a broad range, Doyle doesn’t really have any follow-up questions and so the two turn back to watching the cyclone goat rampage around the floor. Which the goat is doing quite a banger job at. The ability to hop directly up so far and then shoot off to their target saved them so much time.

Though despite having the innate knowledge of how to cheat with Airdash, the goat clearly doesn’t know its own limits. After dashing around, the goat ends up exhausted, teetering around. Which is quite unfortunate for the goat as the other monsters on the floor had equally been informed to attack said goat.

So, now tired, a group of voibolds riding windbreakers managed to run the cyclone goat down. The fight doesn’t last long and soon the goat dies without even taking out one of the enemies.

Doyle isn’t quite satisfied with the goats performance, though Ally reminds him that they aren’t exactly the loner type. Maybe cyclone goats would do better with an actual herd? A simple enough theory to test and so soon there are five more cyclone goats roaming around.

Though with five goats, they no longer make use of Airdash to run down their enemies. Not that they don’t use the skill. Rather, their use is purely for scouting.

One of the cyclone goats would jump straight up and get an idea of what’s around. Then instead of dashing off to attack the closest target they see. The goat instead uses their dash to go straight back down, reducing their air time and chance of being spotted.

If the scout goat noticed a target, the group would amble in their general direction. Sometimes this meant the enemy had left the area by the time they arrived. Other times, the monster stayed in the area long enough for the goats to catch up.

This rarely ended well for the monster. The goats worked together decently well, but more important to their success was the fact they avoided the larger groups. Which kind of defeated the purpose of this whole exercise and so Doyle ordered them to start taking tougher fights.

The herd of cyclone goats first targeted an equal sized group of razor foxes. Though they took a different approach. Three of the goats began to charge at where the foxes were located.

The other two? They revive the tactic used by the lone goat. The pair charge into the air, reorient themselves, and charge at the gathering of razor foxes.

These dive-bombing goats release their spiral blasts, scattering the foxes. The surprise having been lost given the three charging goats. That’s fine by them. With the foxes scattered, they are less able to put up a resistance and the goats manage the fight with mostly minor injuries. Only one of them suffering from a wind slash to the leg that could actually hinder them.

Though it is exactly that leg injury that represented their eventual downfall. The goat herd kept hunting the other groups of floor 19. Except with one of their numbers going into the fights already injured, none of the fights go as cleanly.

However, in a bit of a twist, it isn’t that injured goat that falls first. Rather, a cyclone goat that had managed to survive without taking damage that died. Against an equal sized pack of windbreaker axebeaks, the other goats aren’t capable of holding them back. This results in the healthy goat being surrounded and taken out. From there, the rest of the goats soon follow.

Doyle turns to Ally, ‘Well, I think our new goats turned out quite decent. How do you judge them?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Their attack power seems quite high for their level. Though I can’t necessarily judge how they’ll do against delvers. After all, that would be a defensive fight with the enemy coming to them.’

Doyle’s core dims for a moment, ‘Huh, you aren’t wrong. Then again, even if I kitted out a team of kobolds to try and match Ace or Jim’s team, it still wouldn’t be the same. After all, their teams could face the monsters.’

Ally nods, ‘There isn’t exactly a way to simulate a proper delve this many floors down. Though if I had to guess? The cyclone goats will do just as well, if not better, on the defensive. After all, they are still herbivores.

‘As good as they did attacking, I have to assume what is still basically a prey animal will have the defenses to back it up. And not defenses to get away, but rather, to defend themselves. Goats aren’t like rabbits.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Quick question I just thought. With monster plants, are there predatory herbivores?’

Ally, ‘Eh, there can be. The problem with that is even where mobile plants are common, there are still regular plants hanging around. Why spend energy trying to eat an assassin vine when they could munch on a regular vine?’

Doyle, ‘I would assume a monster plant would be worth more nutritionally or some such?’

Ally nods, ‘Oh, sure, they tend to be worth more as food. Though it tends to be more on the magical side of things. And like I said, it isn’t like it can’t happen.

‘The thing is, you tend to end up more with creatures like the panda than predatory goats. Though instead of the dopey panda found on your world, think more actual bear. The extra magic in their diet makes up for a lot.’

Doyle, ‘Huh, why the panda specifically? If there was going to be a creature to start going specifically for monster plants, I figure it would be something like–’

Doyle pauses as he thinks something over. ‘Right, right, bears are omnivores. Okay, that makes more sense now that my memory has caught up to my thoughts.’

Ally laughs, ‘Yep, apex omnivores that find themselves in some animate jungle or another tend to still do well for themselves.

‘And that includes humans, though awakened races don’t tend to end up with variants based on diet. You just have an odd human who eats plant monsters. Not the panda equivalent.’

Doyle, ‘Though I assume there are some herbivores that manage it?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Oh sure, in the near infinite possibilities that are out there, it can happen. More likely, though? You just have a hippo that is tougher and not a predatory variant hippo. They already eat plants and wreck face to begin with and so don’t need to change.’

Doyle sighs, ‘I was expecting a bit more fantasy.’

Ally, ‘Oh, that exists. You just won’t be able to put it in a box. In a magical universe, the term “omnivore” is such a constrained thing as to be useless. It remains only because most awakened races start in places where the obvious herbivore versus carnivore split exists.

‘Nevermind the fact that plants “eat” sunlight and dirt. Once you include magic, what can be eaten broadens wildly. Beings that actually eat soil and rock, dream eaters, magic eaters, things that specifically eat rust, and so much more.

‘Meat and plants still tend to be the most common, but it tends to have something tacked on based on the local area. In particular, basically everything “eats” world energy. Your body naturally absorbs it as you breathe air and digest food.

‘Though even creatures that require magic to live don’t tend to require it as a part of their “diet”. So while super common, terms such as arcanavore tend to be reserved for creatures that specifically eat magic. Not just happen to absorb it.’

Doyle, ‘What are dungeons?’

Ally shrugs, ‘I must admit to not knowing the specific term. There should be one out there, but likely only used by scholars and True Immortals. After all, while I wouldn’t ever bet against nature, as far as I know? Only dungeons eat the cruft of quintessence.

‘If I had to guess? There should be a proper term for the cruft and they’ll have spliced that onto vore to create the word. The biggest problem in finding out what it is? The fact that basically no one besides True Immortal and some eccentrics can even sense the stuff. It is known not because people can detect it, but because they can feel its effects.’

So Many Goats Go Flying - Chapter 452

Ally Is Why - Chapter 454